In a showdown that came down to the final match, the UW men’s tennis team (2-2) defeated DePaul (3-5) in a 4-3 thriller Tuesday at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
“That’s what college sports is all about,” senior Alex Kasarov said of the thriller.
After Wisconsin won the doubles point and DePaul took three of the first five singles matches, the score was deadlocked at 3-3 with just one match still on the court. It all came down to the No. 2 singles match between Wisconsin freshman Jeremy Sonkin and DePaul senior Robert Kotroczo.
“We felt pretty good,” UW head coach Pat Klingelhoets said of the decisive match. “Jeremy’s one of our best competitors, and he’s kind of a clutch guy. We felt that if there was anybody we wanted out there to clinch a match, Jeremy would be probably the guy.”
Sonkin jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set with a pair of early breaks, but Kotroczo battled back to tie the set at 4-4. The two held serve the rest of the way, forcing a tie breaker.
This time Kotroczo took the early lead, winning the first two points of the tiebreak. But Sonkin won the next five points to take a commanding 5-2 lead. The DePaul senior cut the lead to 5-3, but Sonkin closed it out with a pair of powerful serves. An ace at set point gave Sonkin a 7-3 win in the tie breaker, and the first set went to the UW freshman.
The two players traded service games for the majority of the second set, with neither player breaking his opponent’s serve until the set’s final game. After holding serve on love to take a 5-4 lead, Sonkin had a pair of match-point opportunities against Kotroczo’s serve in the match’s 10th game, but the freshman could not convert.
After a forehand sailed long to bring the score to 15-30, Kotroczo’s second double fault of the game gave Sonkin a break-point opportunity at 15-40. But Kotroczo saved both match points as Sonkin dumped a pair of shots into the net. Though Kotroczo double faulted again to bring the score back to deuce after gaining the advantage on a backhand down the line, the senior was able to escape with a hold as Sonkin dropped two more shots into the net, bringing the score to 5-5.
In the next game, Kotroczo earned a break-point opportunity of his own when the chair umpire overruled Sonkin’s call on a backhand down the line at deuce. Sonkin called the shot wide, but the chair umpire ruled it good, giving Kotroczo a break point. After Sonkin fought back to deuce, Kotroczo earned another break point. Again, the senior could not capitalize. After the game moved to deuce twice more, Sonkin closed it out with a pair of service winners to take a 6-5 lead.
The game proved a pivotal one. Kotroczo’s serve had grown increasingly suspect over the past few games, with the senior committing three double faults in his last service game. As the DePaul senior continued to unravel, Sonkin’s hold put the pressure back on Kotroczo.
“You could see he was getting tighter and tighter,” Klingelhoets said of Kotroczo. “The key game was that five-all game when Jeremy (Sonkin) held. We felt that if he held there, he’d have an excellent chance to either break, or, if he didn’t break, to get him in the tie breaker. That was really the key game.”
Kotroczo’s service struggles came to a head in the final game. An errant shot from the DePaul senior at 30-30 brought the score to 30-40, giving Sonkin another match-point opportunity. This time the freshman capitalized, as a Kotroczo forehand sailed wide to give the match to Sonkin and give the Badgers an emotional victory.
“I felt going into that game, that match point, [he], in the back of his head, didn’t really think that he had the strength to pull it out, and I knew that I could have been out there for a couple more hours,” Sonkin said. “I think mentally I won the match there.”
With the win, Sonkin made a statement in his debut season at the No. 2 singles spot.
“I proved something,” Sonkin said. “I’m supposed to be out here. I can compete with all these guys. There’s not one person out here that I can’t beat. If I can stay positive and if I can keep fighting, there’s nothing that I can’t do. I think I can be unbeatable.”
While Sonkin’s match proved the deciding factor, Wisconsin would not have been in position to win the dramatic showdown without the work of the Kasarov brothers, who combined for three victories on the day. After helping the Badgers take the doubles point with a win out of the No. 1 flight, the Kasarovs each earned a singles win over the very players they defeated in doubles.
Alex and Lachezar Kasarov teamed up to take the No. 1 doubles 9-7 over DePaul’s tandem of Mark Henderson and Sam Davidson. Alex then cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Henderson at No. 1 singles and Lachezar took down Davidson 6-1, 6-3 at No. 4 singles.
The Badgers swept the three doubles matches, as Mark Weinig and Jordan Raemisch won 8-4 at No. 2 doubles and Sonkin joined Elliot Bisnow to earn an 8-6 decision at the No. 3 flight.
Bisnow fell 6-3, 6-4 to DePaul’s George Wang in the No. 3 singles match, and the Badgers continued to struggle out of the No. 5 and No. 6 singles slots, as Raemisch fell 6-4, 7-6 (4) to DePaul’s Jack Komar and Felipe Bellido dropped a 6-3, 6-4 showdown against Gabe Inchauste.
While the singles losses set the stage for Sonkin’s heroics, Coach Klingelhoets was not pleased with the production his team has seen from the No. 5 and No. 6 spots. Klingelhoets opted to play Raemisch over freshman Brian Ko, who was originally announced at the No. 6 spot, in an attempt to breathe some life into the bottom half of the singles draw, but Raemisch was unable to come up with a win.
“We’ve basically got about six or seven guys that are pretty much dead even, so we told these guys at the start of the season that we were going to shake things up a little bit and just give different guys a chance to see what they can do under pressure,” Klingelhoets said. “We still feel like we’re going to have to start winning more matches at five and six. We feel like that should be a strength of this team and we’re struggling a little bit there.”
